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This wonderful collection, which includes 32 of Roscoe Arbuckle's silent shorts, is of course a "must" to every one of Arbuckle's fans, and a fine introduction to you who hardly have heard of the man from before.It begins with the short movies FATTY JOINS THE FORCE (which has two separate sound tracks) and A FLIRT'S MISTAKE (with secondary commentary), and goes on with THE KNOCKOUT and THE ROUNDERS, which also include appearances by no other than Charlie Chaplin. While they are no master pieces, they include amusing moments, and the last mentioned of them is, in my opinion, one of the best short films from Keystone. It makes Charlie and Fatty probably the first "The Thin and The Fat"-team in American film comedy, and it has many funny gags.The festival keeps going with LEADING LIZZIE ASTRAY, MABEL AND FATTY'S WASH DAY, FATTY'S NEW ROLE, MABEL AND FATTY'S MARRIED LIFE, WHEN LOVE TOOK WINGS, and so on. All of them are typical Keystone-routines, but Arbuckle contribute many good moments, especially when he appears as a cheese-loving tramp in FATTY'S NEW ROLE. But the best movies here are, according to my taste, FATTY'S PLUCKY PUP, THE WAITER'S BALL, HE DID AND HE DIDN'T (which is actually rather a 15-minutes long drama than a short comedy, not at all typical for Arbuckle or Keystone generally), and LOVE. The last one of them even gets my nominee as Arbuckle's best silent short. It does not only include many very funny and some even clever gags, but the storyline is, while quite simple, very well structured. The movie was presumed to be lost for many years, until Laughsmith found the two of each reel in two separate countries -- Denmark and Italy.Disc one, two and three include Arbuckle's works only. Disc 4 includes one of his nine Paramount-features, LEAP YEAR --which is far from being as good as his best short movies, but it has some material that works pretty well-- and five of the films he directed from 1925-32, after the terrible scandal had ruined his career as an actor. Especially three of these movies are really excellent, THE MOVIES, MY STARS and FOOL'S LUCK. They prove that Arbuckle could have become just as great as Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd, if he only had got the chance.Overall, this collection is really superb. The film prints are surprisingly good, the musical scores are good, most of the films are good and some are even great. I can promise you that all of these films have something special, a gag or two or more, you'll find amusing. I can also promise that you'll find near-master pieces in this big bunch of Arbuckle-comedies, such as the already mentioned HE DID AND HE DIDN'T and LOVE.Something I miss, is a documentary about Arbuckle's life and career (the collection includes a fine booklet, but I'd also like to see a TV documentary), more of the shorts Arbuckle did together with Buster Keaton --the collection includes only one of those, CONEY ISLAND, which was not their best effort-- and I would also like to see one or two of the talkie shorts Arbuckle did in the early 1930's, when his career finally started to grow again, such as IN THE DOUGH. I would not have anything against to see one of the few Selig-shorts he did before the Keystone period, in 1909-1910, if any of them survive at all.Nevertheless, this collection is made by true fans, with deep love and respect to Arbuckle and his work, and I can highly recommend it to everybody.Long live Roscoe Arbuckle, "The True Fourth Genius."
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